Letters to the Editor

By The New York Times

Sept. 28, 2013

To the Sports Editor:

Re “Voice of Yanks Is Maddening and Memorable,” Sept. 20: John Sterling is a wonderful raconteur, has keen judgment about the game and is willing to criticize Yankee miscues. He and Suzyn Waldman make listening to Yankee games a real pleasure. I like their banter, and I like the nicknames. I like their enthusiasm.

Perfect? Of course not. We all miss a few. That is not the test.

The test is, what do listeners do when the Yankees are playing? I will listen to a couple of accomplished professionals providing me with an evening’s enjoyment in fine style, painting pictures for me and allowing me to paint my own.

ALLAN P. HILLMAN

Hamden, Conn.

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To the Sports Editor:

I have been listening to baseball on the radio since 1959, and John Sterling is by far the worst baseball play-by-play man I have ever heard. Not because of his theatrics but because of the nuts and bolts of his broadcast.

Sterling has dead air between almost every pitch. He frequently miscalls plays, and he has been doing that for a long time. I turn to the Yankees radio broadcast only if I am not near a TV or can’t pick up another radio broadcast.

PHILIP MARTONE

Williston Park, N.Y.

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To the Sports Editor:

I have been listening to Yankees baseball games since the 1940s, and John Sterling is the closest broadcaster to Mel Allen I have heard. (I remember Allen made a few erroneous Ballantine Blast or White Owl Wallop calls.) I do not see how it is possible for any play-by-play broadcaster to be error free.

With his mellifluous delivery, Sterling sticks to the game at hand, giving possibilities about the next pitch or the positioning of a fielder. He knows his facts and the history of the game, and is totally professional.

PAUL S. SCHUELLER

White Plains

‘Malarkey’ by the Bay

To the Sports Editor:

Re “Oracle Completes Voyage to History,” Sept. 26: Perhaps Larry Ellison, the beloved billionaire folk hero, was channeling Ralph Ellison, who wrote that “humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat,” when he and his Oracle Team USA team defended the America’s Cup.

In my opinion the whole thing is a bunch of malarkey. Because Ellison threw so much money at his boat that only three teams in the world could even challenge it precludes my excitement at an American victory. Add that Oracle was caught cheating during the contest, and that the team was made up almost entirely of foreign mercenary sailors, and the true picture starts to come into focus.

ALDEN HARRIS

Boston

Hearing the Players

To the Sports Editor:

Re “With Simple Protest, Players Join Push for N.C.A.A. Reform,” Sept. 25: I am glad that football players from Georgia, Georgia Tech and Northwestern chose to make, with messages taped on their wrists, a modest expression of their interest in the future of their relationship with the N.C.A.A.

Because their future is being debated by coaches, administrators, writers, lawyers, politicians, game manufacturers, broadcast corporations and the public, the players would also like to be heard. It is only reasonable.

MARK SCHOFER

Providence, R.I.

Freedom to be Vulgar

To the Sports Editor:

Re. “M.L.S. Tries to Mute Fans’ Vulgar Chants,” Sept. 20: I grew up in Britain, a willing and enthusiastic participant in numerous blue soccer crowd chants, exposed to phrases and songs that were far more obscene than anything heard in Major League Soccer stadiums.

I am, therefore, one of those who wonder what the fuss is about, not only because of my background, but also because I thought this nation was built upon freedom of expression.

HELEN J. KNOWLES

Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Miller Made a Difference

To the Sports Editor:

Re “In Fight for Legacy, Rodriguez Fields Costly Team of All-Stars,” Sept. 24: It is true that the sports world has never seen anything like the defense team Alex Rodriguez has assembled in terms of size and budget, but not as far as the skill and objective of the effort.

No legal team is likely to repeat the results attained almost single-handedly by Marvin Miller of the Major League Baseball Players Association. And Rodriguez would now be seeking pro bono legal assistance if Miller had not come first.

JAMES K. RILEY

Pearl River, N.Y.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section SP, Page 12 of the National edition with the headline: Dialing In to Sterling, Some Hear Static, Others Dulcet Tones. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe